I want to send some LOVE to moth2fic who has so kindly shared the idea of Safe being a bookity-book-book-book. It was a practice book but at the same time I know there are some really special passages that will always stay with me close to my heart.

I feel immersed in Catholicism at the moment. One of the papers I am doing is called Introduction to Catholicism. It's a bit weird doing this one when I'm already a card-carrying Catholic who teaches religion all freaking day!! But it has to be done so I'm getting on with it. And it's not like I know all the answers by any means. So I'm there, every Wednesday night with about thirty mostly Teachers' College students of all ages. I have to work on an essay this weekend...

And one week to go until the holiday break. I'm going to visit my mother and I am taking NOTHING with me but some writing to do. I'm not going to be around our parish for Easter. Last year one woman on our liturgy committee drove me nuts and I swore I would never be around for Easter ever again! And I'm sticking to it. I'm out of here!

I've had fun with my classes this week. Today I gave my Year 12s a page of maths paper and I played a YouTube clip of someone drawing a Celtic knot. We were looking at the Book of Kells and I was trying to convey the challenges for the monks - candlelit, cold rooms with small windows etc and no answer even today as to how they were able to design the book in such minute and fine detail with no magnifying glasses back then! So we worked our way through this clip, by someone called Papadoc or something, pausing the clip between each line so that we could all copy! it was fun and the students really enjoyed the challenge. I also made them sit at my desk and try writing with a feather dipped in Indian ink!

My ethics class has been grappling with a series of concepts and philosophies I issued to them, harder ones for the bright girls, such as Kantian ethics or utilitarianism, and definitions of justice and peace for the less brilliant. It has produced some fascinating discussions! As each controversial point was raised by the student presenting, hands would go up all over the room. I could have jumped for joy. Now I have their brains going, I know I can get good work out of them! Today I showed them "Tea, Scones and Nuclear Disarmament" about a couple of women who marched against nuclear weapons back in the mid-80s and their reflections. One girl said, it made her feel proud to be a woman. Still, the nuclear weapon issue... it started a debate about nuclear weapons and there were raised voices!! I loved it! It's times like that that teaching seems worthwhile.